| Summary:
Student learning through online plagiarism services Students understand, for the most part, that they must cite their sources in their essays for ideas or quotations that are not their own. Occasionally errors occur that teachers don’t notice. Students may be misled into believing that omitting citations is acceptable. Schools can subscribe to an online service that checks student submissions for originality. This benefits student learning in several ways. First, when all students are required to hand in their essays both through an online originality service, they are all treated equally. This process benefits the entire group, and not only those that the teacher notices. Secondly, the service highlights text that is found in the essay through searches on the Internet and supplies the relevant website or source. When students forget to include a citation, or when they paraphrase too closely without citing their source, it is immediately noticeable. Since the service keeps a database of all essays that students have submitted, it will also indicate occasions where students borrow freely from classmates’ papers either from the same or different school in the current or previous years. Thirdly, the service supplies a percentage that represents the amount of highlighted material in comparison to the total text of the essay. If a student were to get a 50%, for example, she would know that the essay did not contain enough of her own analysis of the citations, but used someone else’s words or ideas about 50% of the time, too high for a quality essay. Online originality services provide valuable learning experiences. Forgetting citations, paraphrasing without citing sources, using classmates’ work too freely, or omitting critical analysis are all crucial lessons. Students can enhance their learning by submitting their work to online originality services while completing essay assignments. |
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